How To Find Customers Online
Did you just launch your business and you’re in search of the various ways you can find more customers online? No worries, you’re in the perfect place to get that info as this post will be highlighting some of the most effective methods and strategies you can leverage on.
For start-up business owners, the first thought that pops into your mind is how to get the first few customers, right?
The internet provides access to more potential customers than any other marketing medium, but knowing the right strategies to get through to your target audience is not always intuitive.
New customers are the backbone of any business.
While maintaining existing customers is important, getting new customers helps your business grow and guarantees a sound baseline of revenue even when customers don’t return.
So, here are some of the best strategies on how to find new customers online.
Tap into your network
Before you hurry to find new customers in the wild, have a look at your existing network of friends, family, and acquaintances.
There is a high chance that you know someone who would benefit from one of the products or services you offer.
Also, if you really believe what you offer is of high-quality, you should have no hesitations offering it to people you already know.
In fact, a lot of successful businesses start by looking at friends and family first.
Start Blogging
Starting a blog is one of the most well-known strategies on how to find customers online.
Blogging refers to writing, photography, and other media that are self-published online.
It began as an opportunity for people to write diary-style entries, but it has since been added to websites for many businesses.
Content marketing is a major path to the success of any business hoping to reach a wide audience on a budget.
In fact, content marketing is one of the main reasons blogs exist today!
Start a Podcast
Podcasts are a developing medium with a large number of listeners tuning in every day to their preferred shows.
Starting your own podcast takes a lot of work, but it is easier than you may think.
All you need to start your own podcast is a microphone, a computer, a website (you should already have this), and podcast hosting.
The total start-up price should be about $10 per month provided you have your microphone, computer, and website.
A podcast builds great relationships and engagement with your target audience. It also converts listeners to customers which is a huge leap for you.
Implement CPA Advertising
Implementing CPA advertising is one of the most effective strategies on how to find customers online.
CPA is often referred to as cost per action/acquisition.
It is an online advertising measurement and pricing model that refers to a specified action.
Some of the actions it refers to include sales, clicks, or form submits (e.g. contact request, newsletter sign up, registration, etc.)
The goal to be reached is set up by the advertiser.
Some of the action CPA advertising platforms offer to advertisers includes;
- Download – Cost Per Download (CPD)
- Sales – Cost Per Sales (CPS)
- Signup – Cost Per Registration (CPR)
- Traffic – Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Call – Cost Per Call
To start CPA advertising and to start benefiting from the various types of CPA Ads, you will need a well-known company in that niche.
And one of the best CPA Advertising platforms out there is Adbirt.
Adbirt is a CPA advertising platform that helps advertisers achieve their goals at their own budget.
On this platform, advertisers can set up a campaign with as little as $0.1.
To create an account, you just need to visit Adbirt.com and sign up as an advertiser.
Then create an account, fund your wallet, create your first ads, and set your budget.
After creating an account, you can now create your first campaign and let affiliates or publishers promote your brand/products across their websites, blog, and all social media platforms.
You also get charged only when your action is performed on your Ad.
Become a known expert
Becoming an expert is another one of the most effective strategies on how to find customers online.
The internet offers a lot of opportunities to show off your expertise.
Putting yourself out there and making others realize that you know a topic inside out is a great way to drive in business.
When you’re doing this, don’t be too self-promotional. Instead, concentrate on the value you can offer to others.
Once you’ve been doing this for some time, good karma will definitely find its way back to you with new clients and customers ready to do business with you.
One of the best platforms to show off expertise is Quora.
Quora is a website where users ask and answer questions on a wide variety of topics. You can also link your profile back to your business website.
Reddit is another one of the best platforms to engage in community, but don’t try to overly promote your own site there as you might risk getting banned.
Implement Social Media Networking
Every day, billions of people log into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and other social networks.
If you are not on these social media platforms, you may be missing out on a lot of potential opportunities.
Not every social network is right for every business but at least, there should be one social network perfect for each business.
You just need to find the one that is best for you.
Linkedin is a great space for experts to show off their knowledge and skills.
Writing articles on LinkedIn provides many content marketing benefits
It also directs users back to your profile so they can click through to learn more about you and your business.
Implement Targeted Local Advertising
Here’s another effective strategy on how to find customers online.
Smartphones and apps offer users new and improved ways of finding and connecting with businesses.
Facebook Ads, Google Maps ads, Yelp advertising, and other hyper-targeted advertising strategies may pay off well for your business.
You should move into this strategy slowly and try out a lot of experiments to find which the one that works best to drive in conversions for your business.
It is easy to spend a lot without much result, so always experiment and test various local advertising platforms to find out what works.
A lot of people search for what you offer from time to time. So, if you show up first thanks to a good ad, they’ll most likely patronize you.
Partner Up
Partnering with a non-competitive but audience-complementary partner can be a very effective way of finding new customers.
This can be something as basic as a traffic trade – partnering with a highly-trafficked site in your customer’s domain, placing a banner to drive traffic to your shop, and paying the partner either a share of the cart revenue or a flat fee for every customer acquired through the partner banner.
Incentivize First Purchase
Make the first purchase of a customer superb and you’ll likely increase the number of conversion from visitor to customer.
Some ecommerce stores offer a small discount for first-time customers, the aim is to make it tangible and obvious what the customer will get if they buy right now.
Hold a Sale Discount
Holding a sale discount is one of the most effective strategies on how to find customers online.
Discounting is not a long-term business strategy but it can be very effective in driving new customers to your business.
Figure out your customer acquisition cost and from that, how much of a discount (on a limited amount of product/quantity) you can stand to offer to get new customers – then publicize it to the world through your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
You should also be careful of attracting deal-hunters, since they may not be of long-term value to your business.
Run a Referral Program
one of the best and most valuable methods of acquiring a customer is when existing customers refer a friend.
When this method works very well, all the advertising and marketing is done by your existing customers.
This means that you can concentrate on running your online store instead of investing time bringing people to it.
Referrals can happen naturally through Word of Mouth marketing (focus on great products, great prices, and excellent customer service – these three strategies will get you very far) but you can also start a referral marketing program.
Claim your place on Google My Business
While you’re at it, make sure you list your business in any directories you qualify for.
Also, ensure your business name, address, website address, phone number, and all other information is correctly inputted.
Chambers of commerce and other local business groups usually have member directories that you can list contact information and website URL.
You can claim your place on Google My Business here.
Accentuate the positive
When you speak to potential customers, they might have some questions like:
“How many other customers do you have” and “How long have you been in business.”
Try answering those questions by highlighting the positive.
You can reply to the question “How many other customers do I have” with something like this:
“That number isn’t as important as the fact that 95% of the people that have tried our products or services would recommend it to their friends.”
Also, you can reply to the question “How long have I been in business” with something like this
“I have many years of experience in this sector but recently opted to bring the same quality service that I offered through a well-known company but this time at a much lower rate.”
Conclusion
There you have it, 12 effective strategies on how to find customers online.
With this post, you can now acquire a lot of customers from various online mediums.
The most crucial thing is to be creative and know which channels to use.
Now that you have that knowledge, you can go ahead and start getting new customers.